This Desert Life: Tennis, anyone? Not here

Thursday

Mar 9, 2017 at 8:35 PMMar 9, 2017 at 9:16 PM

Matthew Cabe Staff Writer @DP_MatthewCabe

March marks the beginning and end of the professional tennis season in Southern California.

The BNP Paribas Open — SoCal's only top-level event — is the first of nine Masters 1000 events on the men’s tour and one of four mandatory events on the women’s. Four tournaments carry more prestige than the BNP: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

Those four majors are often called the Grand Slams, but as the late tennis historian Bud Collins once noted, a Grand Slam (winning all four majors in one year) is an achievement, not a tournament.

But anyway, people call them Grand Slams, which has led many to dub the BNP the “fifth major” or the “West Coast Slam,” and it plays out in our backyard. But before the world’s best players descend upon Indian Wells, a smaller event takes place.

The BNP Paribas Challenge is the pre-qualifying tournament for players with poor (or no) rankings. Hundreds of men and women compete, and the champions — one man; one woman — receive wild-card entries into qualifying rounds. From there, 12 winners gain entrance into the West Coast Slam’s main draw.

Two High Desert players competed in the Challenge this year. Former Oak Hills and Barstow high schools standouts Jordan Dominguez and Nolan Earl.

Jordan received a bye into the second round where he faced Marcos Giron, a former NCAA champion who’s currently ranked 443 in the world. Jordan — the 2016 Daily Press Athlete of the Year — lost 0-6, 0-6.

He was no match for Giron, but that’s not a dig. I’ve hit with Jordan; he’s a solid player. It’s simply that tennis’ talent pool is impossibly deep.

Chew on this: Giron eventually won the Challenge, but lost in the first qualifying round to Mikhail Kukushkin, currently ranked 90th. For his efforts, Kukushkin earned a shot in the main draw and beat the 76th-ranked Jordan Thompson in the first round.

But Kukushkin doesn’t have a shot in hell of winning the BNP Paribas Open. To be ranked inside the world’s Top 100 is monumental, but the gap between Kukushkin and, say, the 25th-ranked Gilles Simon is wide and labyrinthine.

And as gifted as the aging Simon is, he doesn’t have a shot either; the gap between Simon and, say, No. 2 Novak Djokovic — five-time BNP champion — is just as wide.

It’s a wild, daunting reality.

Now, for his part, Barstow-native Nolan won his first Challenge match, beating Andre Brilliant 6-2, 6-1 before falling in the second round. Nolan, 22, has experienced that “impossibly deep” pool of talent first hand and wants to make High Desert players more competitive, but he knows it’s an uphill battle.

“I’d say I’m extremely pessimistic," Nolan said. "You may have a few good players that come through here and there, but it isn’t enough to compete against other schools down the hill or other areas in Southern California.”

His observation is based on the fact that tennis once enjoyed a heydey in the High Desert.

Two decades ago, gifted guys like Kory Rudow (Sultana), Chris Soto (Hesperia), Tristen Anders (Victor Valley) and John Siefke (Granite Hills) tore apart the competition. SVL Country Club held an annual Memorial Day tournament that drew professionals like Michael Joyce, once ranked 64 in the world.

A few years later, girls like Tory Brymer (Apple Valley) and Kara Jenkins (Granite) evolved into formidable college players. And a young kid named Austin Karosi was on his way to a world ranking of 924, which he achieved in 2012.

This was all spurred by great coaching, another fact not lost on Nolan, who now heads Barstow’s boys team.

“If we wanted to grow tennis, we first have to spark an interest,” he said, “which starts when kids are young. And the hard part is keeping that interest going so that kids will choose tennis over baseball, basketball or football. Considering I lived through this tennis drought we are having right now, I’ve been able to notice many problems.”

For Nolan, those problems are that “tennis is no longer considered a sport” in the minds of high school students and, as a result, the level of competition has significantly dropped.

Access to the game is just as problematic. There’s a mere 10 public tennis courts — that I know of — in the region’s three largest cities. And how do you grow interest and nurture development if there’s nowhere to play?

Still, Nolan sees possibility so long as good people work together.

“If we can start new school programs for students in the High Desert starting at the elementary level (like other sports) and working up to the high-school level, the respect for the sport will change," he said. "And we also need coaches and staff who are more interested in the well being of the players than a paycheck.”

Nolan says he’s “willing to give every bit” of his effort to grow tennis, and I commend that. It takes spirited people to change a worrisome reality. People who fight the good fight to better not just tennis, but the High Desert itself.

“Barstow is my home,” Nolan said. “Growing up, I noticed many people did not believe this to be the best town to live in, but as I grew older and started to think for myself, I see the potential for this town.”

For our region on a whole, I agree. Now let’s get to work.

Matthew Cabe can be reached at MCabe@VVDailyPress.com or at 760-951-6254. Follow him on Twitter @DP_MatthewCabe.

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